devolve
whats it all been for?
frost creeps in
light no more
the warmth that paints your rosy cheeks
is just as fleeting
as a naivete  blush
upon the cheek of a smitten girl
will the blue frills matter
as they burn in flames?
will the lace underlay flatter
your decaying face?
will reality reveal itself to you
on your dying day?
Or will you destroy the clock tower
before it tells you
that your time is up

An ode to hospitality and the magnificence
of New Zealand’s majestic South Island.*


Pale Granite massif plummets down from snowline to Kaikoura coast
Where white waves seeth in ocean rage atop the green of dark abyss,
Below subducts Pacific plate to buckle mountain mantle’s boast
Titanic forces ****** beneath the wheeling flock of sea-tern’s hiss.

Cold winds blow from seaward swell of glaciation far to south
Where blue whales hunt the clouds of krill and ply this ocean’s constant roar
Through icy currents rich and deep resourced from white Antarctic mouth
Whence icebergs blue shall calve and drift, where seeking albatross do soar.

Frosty on this Winter morn, green rolling hills caress my eye
Deep shadows creasing valley clefts, round sunlit pastures highlit, mound.
From coastal dune transitioning to snowy mountain crags on high
The splendour of it all, my friend, entrancing me in sense-surround.

Blown red tussock streams to windward, ripples in concentric waves
Ripples in the mountain’s flank surmounting to the alpine pass.
Bastion of high country shepherd, striding forth with dog he braves,
The loneliness of isolate in isolation’s clawing grasp.

Tempest in the black beech forest thrashing leafage falls like rain
Rain in sheets cascades from clifftops, waterfalls in grand parade.
Hellish clouds embrace the fiords in hellish lightening flash refrain
Fiordland in majestic style in vaulting might of storm’s charade.

Grey light in the estuary, reflections in still water stand
Of fishing boats at wharfage in a timeless moment’s instant gaze,
Riverton in midday mode as fisherman’s coarse calloused hand
Prepares to launch beyond the spit to brave the sea, to snare the crays.

Comfort in a welcome smile, welcome in a warming fire
Luxury in the steaming sting of shower water piping hot.
Blue cod baked so perfectly with pinot noir to my desire
The sanctuary of “Land’s End”, quaintly, the very best New Zealand’s got.

Marshalg
“Foxglove”, Taranaki
25 June 2015

*“Land’s End”… An exquisite find, a very English bed and breakfast hotel located, remotely, at the very tip of southern lands end at Bluff.
A delightful discovery to complement, perfectly, the utter charm and grandeur of New Zealand’s wonderland....
The magnificent South Island.

M.

The most elegantly glimpsed aptness of blue,
So colorfully unique in it's intending,
Of the brightest pastels found inside the Louvre,
In the depth of the sky in it's ever mending.

A cascading stain above as the dawn breaks,
A changing shade away from night brings a warming tone,
The vastness of profundity only seen in Great lakes,  
These dripping streams of patiences are not yet overblown.

A color we bleed when we need a companion,
The tint we see in oceans at the eye's length,
And fills the sky on the most stunning day in the Grand Canyon,
The deepest blues are seen in weakness and less in strength.

A chagrining emotional torrent coursing to a commotion,
Water flies above as airy type materialization,
Seeing spirits crushed by the weight of a winter squall Atlantic ocean.
But reveals a illusive blue when in a frozen glaciation,

The most beautiful blue is so intrinsic,
Like the inner part of the flame burning insistent,
But with far more life that is so simplistic,
Whereas my life without blue is nonexistent.

Πάπυρος είναι δική μου άποροι ταινία, είναι ντεμοντέ να καμίνι του άλλου, όπως feeleth το τσίμπημα της κάθε καταγγελίας !!! Όπου είναι εραστής ορυχείο διαμορφωμένο φυτεία; καμουφλαρισμένη σε drag and επίγεια βλοσυρό ύφος του; ορυχείο κόκκινο μπαλόνι ουρλιαχτό στην ηλιακή παγετώνων !!! όμως, δεν πρέπει να υπάρχει πάγωμα σε θερμά μπάλα φωτός. Τώρα tis κουραστική μέρα και νύχτα unharmonious να θρηνεί σε shakespherian κομψό ..... για πού είχε συ προπορεύεται μπουτίκ; όπου λουλούδι για σένα έχω την οποίαν αποθηκεύονται !!! εγώ δεν εξερευνήσουν να προσαρμόσουν όπως πένθος, ήταν να είναι δύσκολο να ψάχνει, πραγματικό το πρωί; Δεν είναι μια ιδιοτροπία μου splitteth ως τσεκούρι για ξύλινα περικαλύπτω. ορυχείο ανίερη γλώσσα crinches ορυχείο δόντια, να δαγκώσει φίδι ειδώλιο τρόπο ..... Paragon των farawayness, η συστολή σου hath μου άφησε, λιώνω στο να έχουν ακόμη haveth μηδέν !! Ωστόσο, ακόμα και όλη αυτή την κόλαση, το ορυχείο oldened λείψανο πάπυρο θέλεις να αποκατασταθεί πλήρως εκατό φορές ..... δείτε, NOF αυτή η καρδιά του αυτό το τρομάζω γήινης σφαίρας
( Greek tongue )

English version-
Papyrus is mine destitute film, it's old fashioned to other's kiln, as i feeleth the sting of all denunciation!!! Wherein is mine lover fashioned plantation? camouflaged in drag and terrestrial scowl's? mine red baloon howl's to solar glaciation!!! yet, there should be no freeze to a warmly ball of light. Now tis long day's and unharmonious night's to lament in shakespherian chic..... for whence did thou goeth boutique? wherein flower's for thee i hast stored!!! i do not explore to tailor such mourning, was it to hard to seeketh real in the morning? Not a vagary to splitteth me as axe to wooden sheathe. mine unholy tongue crinches mine teeth, to bite in snake figurine manner..... Paragon of farawayness, thy shyness hath left me, i languish in must have's yet haveth naught!! Yet in even all this hell, mine oldened relic papyrus shalt be fully restored a hundred fold..... see, this heart's not of this daunt terrestrial globe.....

Sunshine up the coast, just a single line of bright sunlight shining through the, ever present, rain.
The ocean lies flat, barely a surge on the West coast, which is a rare thing. They tell me they can't get out of the harbour on the East coast,
Big waves rolling in from the Pacific. There is nothing but a vast ocean between the shores of Chile and New Zealand then to the South, Antactica with it's massive glaciation surging to the sea.

That Great Southern Ocean, with it's parade of icebergs and permanent population of killer whales, that ocean generates the atmospheric depressions which whirl up in tight formation and hammer the islands of New Zealand with those titanic South East gales.
They only blow for a day or so but in that time they tear the place to pieces.
Curling into Cook Strait between the two islands the South Easterly generates mountainous seas which slam into the inter islander ferries, quickly shutting down operations. The big boats with their cargo of wild eyed, green, sea sick tourists and chained down vehicles, heaving wildly in the giant combers and fleeing with all possible haste for the shelter and safety of a lee shore port.

Blasting North from Wellington leaving deserted, rain soaked streets in the city, the South East gale howls up the island to concertina up against the 8000 ft flank of the Egmont volcano this further compresses the gale transforming it into a howling banshee which allows no man to stand upright.  100 year old giant mamaku treeferns thrash about like matchsticks, the gale shredding huge forests of vegetation, a phalanx of leaves and branches flying horizontal with the ground surface and freezing rain which sears when it hits the face and leaves the toughest men running, with panic, for shelter wearing torrid, bright pink, stinging cheeks beneath their wildly, startled eyes.

The gale endures into the night, all power is gone and no repair crews will venture until it is safe to do so. Outside the monster moans in it's fury and the wife and I cower sleeplessly under the covers, in bed waiting for the juddering roof to be torn off our dwelling allowing the deluge to saturate and destroy all.
There is no sleep to be had and as the night progresses the terror rises incrementally with the rising shriek of the gale and the blast of the teeming hail impacting like bullets against the windward windows.

The night is interminable...and then, suddenly, the eyes crack open to a beautiful calmness, the morning sun, guilelessly, pouring in the bedroom window!

M.
Foxglove, Taranaki NZ
5 July 2020